Some 250 Jewish visitors recently entered the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, with reports that some performed Jewish religious practices described as “Talmudic rituals” (e.g., prayer, etc.) while under heavy Israeli police protection.
Other visitors reportedly raised Israeli flags on the Mount, adding another significant development to the continuing debate over Jewish access, prayer and worship at Judaism’s holiest site.
These developments are particularly significant because Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount has historically been restricted under the longstanding status quo governing the site. Under that arrangement, Muslims worship on the Temple Mount while Jews traditionally pray at the Western Wall. Israel maintains overall security, while the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf administers religious activities on the Mount. In recent years, however, enforcement of the prohibition against Jewish prayer has increasingly loosened.
Jordan strongly condemned the latest visit, claiming Muslim worshippers were prevented from entering the Al-Aqsa compound while the Jewish visitors were present. Jordan called the events a violation of the historical and legal status quo and appealed for international intervention. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has repeatedly maintained that Israel’s official policy concerning the Temple Mount status quo has not changed.
For students of Bible prophecy, what is happening on the Temple Mount deserves close attention.
Daniel 9:27 foretells the confirmation of a covenant with many for one week, understood prophetically as a seven-year agreement that begins the final seven years before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the battle of Armageddon. Halfway through that period, the Antichrist will stop the sacrifice and oblation and commit the Abomination of Desolation. That even occurs in a newly rebuilt Third Jewish Temple.
Jesus specifically pointed His disciples back to Daniel’s prophecy:
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…” (Matthew 24:15 KJV)
Revelation 11:1-2 provides another important detail. John is instructed to measure “the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein,” while the outer court is given to the Gentiles for 42 months. Taken together with Daniel’s prophecy concerning the cessation of sacrifice, these passages point toward a functioning Third Jewish Temple and renewed Jewish worship during the final 3 1/2 years.
That means the present Temple Mount arrangement cannot remain exactly as it is forever.
Today, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque stand on the Mount, the Islamic Waqf administers its religious affairs, and the status quo has historically restricted Jewish prayer there. Yet approximately 250 Jews have now visited during Rosh Hashanah, some reportedly conducting religious rituals, Israeli flags have been raised, and Israeli police have protected the visitors. These events do not fulfill the prophecy of the Third Temple yet, but they demonstrate how an arrangement once considered politically untouchable can gradually change.
Ultimately, some form of political agreement will have to resolve or accommodate the Temple Mount question sufficiently for a Third Jewish Temple to stand and Jewish sacrifices to resume. The prophesied seven-year covenant of Daniel 9:27 provides a compelling prophetic framework for how such an extraordinary change could become possible.
The Temple has not yet been rebuilt, and the final seven-year agreement has not yet been confirmed. But when Jewish worship, Israeli flags and police protection appear together on the Temple Mount, Bible prophecy students have good reason to pay attention. Times are indeed changing.
Bryan Smith
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